Who Owns Africa’s Story? Tinashe Mpasiri Challenges the Myth of a Single Narrative

Africa Youth Future Forward Summit, 2025

At the Africa Youth Future Forward Summit, keynote speaker Tinashe Mpasiri delivered a compelling address that challenged long-held perceptions about Africa’s trajectory, the ownership of narrative power, and the role of culture in shaping sustainable futures. Speaking under the theme “Changing Africa’s Narrative: The Role of Creatives, Artists and Media Leaders,” Mpasiri reframed the conversation by asserting that Africa is no longer “rising” – Africa has already risen.

Opening his address with a call to acknowledge the ancestral spirit of the African continent, Mpasiri praised the summit for convening what he described as “points of light,” individuals whose presence and participation actively redefine Africa’s global image. He rejected the persistent depiction of Africa as a “dark continent,” noting that while satellite images may show fewer lights across the continent at night, forums such as the Summit illuminate Africa in far more meaningful ways: through ideas, participation, and agency.

“A continent does not rise in theory. It rises in participation,” he said.

Narrative as Power, Not Performance

Mpasiri, a director at TAP Zambia Limited, a board member of The 1873 Network, a media publisher, and the composer of Africa’s Call, the official G20 song under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, positioned himself first and foremost as a storyteller and steward. He emphasized that storytelling, particularly around corporations, institutions, and individuals, plays a decisive role in shaping Africa’s collective future.

Central to his message was a challenge to the conventional framing of creatives, artists, and media leaders as a separate class entrusted with imagination.

“Imagination is not a profession. It is a human faculty,” he asserted.

According to Mpasiri, every individual who posts, comments, critiques, questions, or mobilizes through any platform contributes to Africa’s narrative. Creatives and media leaders, he argued, merely wear “masks” that express a deeper, shared human capacity to imagine and influence meaning.

Africa’s Strength Lies in Many Voices

Rejecting the idea of a single African narrative, Mpasiri argued that Africa’s true strength lies in the coexistence of many stories bound together by shared values rather than enforced uniformity.

“Africa is a geographical construct and has no voice. It is the people, over 1.5 billion individuals, who have voices,” he said.

He stressed that narratives are not neutral. They legitimize systems, shape order, normalize behavior, and determine what societies tolerate or resist. Power, he emphasized, does not belong to institutions, but to people, young and old, who consistently express themselves and act in alignment with the future they desire.

Soft Power and the Urgency of Now

Drawing from his experience composing Africa’s Call, Mpasiri illustrated how culture functions as a critical form of soft power. He explained that the song was not written because Africa needed saving, but because it needed articulation, particularly around diplomacy, international relations, and Africa’s role in global governance.

“Diplomacy does not only happen in official spaces. It happens in culture, in music, in art, and in everyday expression,” he noted.

He described soft power not as weak or decorative, but as the force that shapes perception, belonging, and legitimacy over time, translating geopolitics into emotion and mobilizing collective consciousness.

The Africa Youth Future Forward Summit as Collective Agency

Mpasiri described the Summit itself as an exercise in collective soft power, a space for open, honest dialogue, disagreement without division, imagination without naïveté, and responsibility without fear. He emphasized that sustainability begins with people, not policies, and that culture and narrative are foundational infrastructure for continuity and progress.

“A future cannot endure if it is not imagined collectively,” he said.

Borderless Minds, Not Borderless Maps

Explaining the philosophy behind The 1873 Network, Mpasiri traced its name to a pre-colonial Africa before the Berlin Conference of 1884 imposed artificial borders. While acknowledging the impracticality of dismantling physical borders, he emphasized the urgency of dismantling mental borders.

Through a symbolic numerological reflection, he underscored the indivisibility of the human spirit and the central role of the individual as the driver of change.

Be the Driver, Not the Spectator

In closing, Mpasiri urged participants not to wait for permission, titles, or validation. Drawing on his decade-long journey toward contributing meaningfully to the G20 platform, he emphasized self-driven initiative as the gateway to influence and access.

He left the audience with a personal maxim derived from a reflection on leadership:

“The discipline to observe and learn equips one with the ability to serve and earn.”

His final charge was clear and resolute: the promise of Africa does not reside in institutions or elites, but in ordinary individuals exercising imagination with intention.

“The promise of the Africa you want, the Africa I want, the Africa we want collectively, lives in each and every one of us.”

The standing ovation that followed affirmed the resonance of his message: Africa’s narrative is not waiting to be written, it is being authored, daily, by its people.

Here is a link to Mpasiri’s keynote address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SZZia7H9gM